Terrafugia Releases Flying Car

No wait... it has wings, damnit.

Spending most of my childhood in the care of television shows
like The Jetsons, I believed by the time I learned to drive it would be in a
flying car. When that time came, it was vaguely disappointing that vehicles,
even those described in the classifieds as “good condition for age,” did not
yet include “up” buttons. I don’t want a car with wings, I want the traffic-jam
defeating equivalent of a Harrier Jump Jet without them.

While there have been many flying car prototypes from
individuals and companies like Chrysler and Ford, the disappointing aspect has
always been that the vehicle is more like a plane that can fold up and drive on
the road than a car that can fly. When I was sent a link describing
Terrafugia’s contender for air-road hybrids, I clicked excitedly only to see
wings.

Terrafugia has been developing “roadable aircrafts” since
2006, but its Transition® model recently gained clearance from The US National
Highway Safety Administration due to new FAA regulations. The Transition will
be available in the U.S. by the end of the year and around 100 people have
already put money down on the $227,000 purchase.

Terrafugia developed the Transition® “to provide pilots the
convenience of a dual-purpose vehicle,” but this model can be driven on the
road by anyone with a driver’s license. To take the Transition® airborne, one must
obtain a light-aircraft license, which takes as little as 20 training hours.
Built of carbon fiber, the two-seat plane is about the size of a large sedan.
On landing at an airport, its wings fold up in 15 seconds, with power then routed to the rear
wheels, giving it a top road speed of about 62mph.

Even with Highway Safety’s clearance and new FAA
regulations, it is rather irresponsible of Terrafugia to provide aunt Jenny
from Nebraska the opportunity to just “pop in” from several states away.

The flying car is not a new invention and is often
attributed to aeronautical engineer Waldo Waterman. Waterman designed the
Arrowbile, which took its first flight on March 21, 1937, powered only by a
Studebaker engine.

Unfortunately, Waterman’s flying car never took off. And
until a developer gets rid of the wings, flying cars never will.